How Do Apple’s Many Critics Get Paid?

Color me somewhat jaded but I find it more difficult in recent years to know the good guys from the bad guys. Hey, it’s that way in government, right? There’s that deep state to worry about, and increasingly it seems even the President might be compromised by the Russians.

Early this year I read that Apple had its best financial quarter ever. That was just a day after I read that Apple continues to decline. Since numbers don’t lie which side of the fence should I believe?

Accountability

Missive after missive says Apple is doing this when later we read Apple is doing that instead. Who can you believe? Sure, a little paranoia and skepticism goes a long way these days and it didn’t stop at Jurica Dujmovic who wrote a missive that is so plagued with an alternate reality it could have been financed by Samsung or Microsoft.

I used to love Apple.

Uh huh. That’s exactly what I would expect to hear from a paid contrarian informant.

First, the history, then an argument.

Its phones were revolutionary, simple to use, and the desktop computer image and video-editing capabilities were unmatched. And while iPad Pro still is, in my opinion, one of the best tablet devices ever made, there are fewer and fewer reasons to stay within the Apple ecosystem.

Hey, what about that highly acclaimed iPhone X? What would a paid nattering nabob of negativism say about what everyone says is a great device?

Its most highlighted feature, edge-to-edge screen, was already done before, most notably on the Samsung Galaxy S8, plus and Note 8, all of which came out before the iPhone X.

Wait. That’s always the case. Apple seldom launches the latest and greatest technologies first, instead preferring to ensure they are refined and actually work. Fingerprint readers? Android smartphones and Windows PCs had ’em before Apple. Which one worked the best? Touch ID. From Apple.

What about Face ID?

While iPhone X’s face recognition (Face ID) solution might seem innovative at first glance, it’s strikingly similar to iris recognition, a feature that Samsung S8 had seven months before Apple’s latest flagship was released. Besides, Face ID comes with a slew of its own issues, ranging from recognition performance to privacy concerns.

Oh, good grief. Who is paying this guy?

Face ID works. Did Samsung’s iris recognition? No. Others? No. And you can’t complain about privacy concerns while comparing Face ID to similar functions that did not work (well, maybe you can, but it’s a stretch to believe).

OK, Apple’s iPhone X has what is called the best OLED display on the market. Better than Samsung even though it’s made by Samsung.

What do you have to say about that?

One thing that separates good display quality from mediocre is the screen resolution, measured in PPI, or pixels per inch; the more pixels you have per inch, the more crisp the image looks and less “blocky” it is.

Please. Someone. Hack into his bank account to see if Samsung sent money in his direction. Oh, and I defy Dujmovic to look at either display and tell the difference. Well, other than Apple’s OLED display is better (everyone except Samsung says so and they’re being very quiet about it since they manufacture it).

This guy says Samsung’s Bixby is the smarter artificial intelligence assistant. He may be the only one on earth– besides Samsung flacks and the people who sold Bixby’s talking AI to Samsung– otherwise, the early reviews are in and Samsung has some catching up to do to get even to Siri’s level.

Siri is cool, but Bixby has quite a few tricks up its sleeve. For example, it makes your phone smarter, especially the camera: It is able to recognize taken photos and associate them with relevant information, such as product or location information.

Uh huh. That’s a feature we all want to see from Apple.

There are two ways such misguided analysis makes it to the interwebs.

A competitor pays the writer or publication to diss Apple

A website editor sanctions an Apple hit piece because eyeballs

If you had to put money down on #1 or #2, which would you choose?

Dujmovic contends Apple has become focused on bling and is in decline. With 1-billion or so customers, record sales and profits, what do the numbers say? Decline? Or, growth?

Such critics have made a living pointing out the obvious– Apple’s innovation comes two ways and seldom mirrors a competitor. Apple’s day-to-day innovations are iterative in nature. Then, every so often, Apple jumps ahead with disruptive innovations. You, me, and a billion customers can see it, but it sure seems as if critics on the dole from Apple’s competitors are paid to keep their eyes closed.

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About Wil Gomez

I live in Brooklyn, New York and work in Manhattan; a Mac owner for almost 25 years, and an IT specialist on mixed platforms-- Mac, Windows, and Linux. Read more of my articles here. My fiancée is semi-famous Kate MacKenzie. Follow her on PixoBebo.